Lightfoot Line: Swapokmund & Walvis Bay

This past weekend we went to the coast with one of the other Fulbright families – Janet, and her two sons Ross and Luke – all in our big van. The drive from Windhoek to the coast makes you realize just how sparsely populated Namibia is. We passed through 4 small towns in our 4 hour drive, and much of it was described in the guidebook as a “vast nothingness”. The guidebook was pretty accurate. On our drive we did pass through areas that have granite and marble mining, and really interesting rock formations. Then, after almost 400 kilometers, you make a sudden decent are enter the beach town, Swapokmund. It’s a little bit disconcerting, because Swapokmund seems somewhat like a German resort-town, with lovely architecture and nice cafes. It seems like it’s just plunked there on the coast in Southern Africa, which you can only get to after miles and miles of vast nothingness. For those of you Hollywood fans, this is the town where Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt had their baby. This attention by the paparazzi did not seem to make Swapokmund THAT popular, as it was virtually empty all week-end, and this is still the middle of the summer.

We stayed in a “resort” about 10 kilometers down the coast in an area called Long Beach. This is about halfway between Swapokmund and the port town, Walvis Bay. The drive itself on the road from Swapokmund to our resort was fascinating. We got to see a fairly recent shipwreck. Just north of Swapokmund is the Skeleton Coast, which is called that because of all the shipwrecks. But we were surprised to see one right near our resort. It was wrecked there in 2006, and they will just leave it to the elements.

On the otherside of the road, are the high desert sand dunes. The desert comes right to the ocean in this part of Namibia. It is beautiful. We climbed up to the top of a really high dune, which was exhausting. But it was very fun to slide down them! The sand was really, really hot.

Climbing Up the Dune

On Top of the Dune

Sliding Down the Dune

The resort had a huge playground (very unsafe, so the kids loved it), and a HUGE pool with a waterslide (no rules!). The next day a number of local folks came to play on the waterslide, but we were by ourselves at night with no other guests. We splurged on this place – our self-catering apartment cost about $55 US a night.

Over the week-end, we went to the local aquarium and saw flocks of flamingos in the lagoon in Walvis Bay. We also went to a local craft market, saw the beautiful wild parakeets, and played in the ocean. Maxine and Alice were happy to see the Lighthouse which we’d seen before we came on the Amazing Race TV show. We had a lovely dinner at the yacht club in Walvis Bay (which was nothing like a yacht club I’d ever seen before – just a ramshackle building with a few rusty boats in the yard).

Bill and Ruby overlooking the craft market by the Swapok lighthouse.

Donkey cart in Walvis Bay

But our highlight was our Sunday morning tour with Tommy’s Living Desert Tours.
Tommy is a guide who knows everything about the desert. We got in two land rovers, and drove on fixed routes through the desert. We’d be driving along, and Tommy would suddenly stop, jump out of the car, dig a hole in the sand, and find a lizard. Sometimes he can tell by the tracks where small animals would be (he calls them the “Bushman’s newspaper”), and sometimes by a slight discoloration in the sand. We found a bunch of different kinds of lizards, a side winder (as Tommy says, “don’t worry, it’s venom is only fatal for children”), a scorpion, chameleons, and lots of insects. It was fun and fascinating for everyone. We also got to run up and down the desert dunes, and take a very wild ride at the end which was as much fun as a roller coaster (though certainly not as safe!).